Continuity
I crossed the 200-page mark last weekend, getting closer each weekend to my goal of 350 pages. Today, I thought I'd talk about continuity. While continuity is something every author needs to be sure of in every book, regardless of topic, dealing with continuity across a trilogy is a level of madness I wasn't sure I could handle.
This is my second trilogy, so I knew more going into this one than I did for the first one, obviously. For example, in the first trilogy, I had broad brushstrokes of a plan for the plot, knowing where it was going to start and stop, and a few milestones along the way. But ultimately, for the Reunion trilogy, it wasn't until I was halfway through that I knew they would end up going to every country and there would be a shadow set of dark mages who thought they could be the next Keepers.
For the Jewels and Gods trilogy, however, part of the premise of the whole trilogy is that there is a Jewel Keeper for each of the seven countries, and that, to find him or her, the quest has to go to that country. The Jewel Keepers don't show up, in other words, until the questors come to them. It's a good plot device to give the quest a reason to take a while, and to give the readers a sense of the whole world, not just part of it.
Along with the trek going to every country, I - of course - had a plan for who each Jewel Keeper was and some biographical information about him or her. That included what kind of familiar they would have and what their magic specialty would be. The prophecy announces their gift with each new Jewel Keeper, though the prophecy never names the Jewel Keepers so as not to put them at risk, for all mages - light and dark - hear prophecies.
So, I started this trilogy with a plan for the quest in terms of going from country to country, city to city, and which Jewel Keeper would join the quest in which city of which country. In doing so, I also came up with some obstacles along the way, including both dark mages - as I had had in Reunion - and the gods themselves playing more of a role in this trilogy, particularly the evil gods. The idea there was to explain why the gods would need to be quelled, and the ambiguity of whether the quest would quell all the gods, or only the evil ones.
Keeping all those plans in mind - or on 3x5 cards, as I do, and outlined at a high level in the drafts of each book, as well - I allow myself the freedom to create scenarios and bring new ideas to fruition as I'm writing. As long as those ideas don't change the overall continuity.
Too much.
This is my second trilogy, so I knew more going into this one than I did for the first one, obviously. For example, in the first trilogy, I had broad brushstrokes of a plan for the plot, knowing where it was going to start and stop, and a few milestones along the way. But ultimately, for the Reunion trilogy, it wasn't until I was halfway through that I knew they would end up going to every country and there would be a shadow set of dark mages who thought they could be the next Keepers.
For the Jewels and Gods trilogy, however, part of the premise of the whole trilogy is that there is a Jewel Keeper for each of the seven countries, and that, to find him or her, the quest has to go to that country. The Jewel Keepers don't show up, in other words, until the questors come to them. It's a good plot device to give the quest a reason to take a while, and to give the readers a sense of the whole world, not just part of it.
Along with the trek going to every country, I - of course - had a plan for who each Jewel Keeper was and some biographical information about him or her. That included what kind of familiar they would have and what their magic specialty would be. The prophecy announces their gift with each new Jewel Keeper, though the prophecy never names the Jewel Keepers so as not to put them at risk, for all mages - light and dark - hear prophecies.
So, I started this trilogy with a plan for the quest in terms of going from country to country, city to city, and which Jewel Keeper would join the quest in which city of which country. In doing so, I also came up with some obstacles along the way, including both dark mages - as I had had in Reunion - and the gods themselves playing more of a role in this trilogy, particularly the evil gods. The idea there was to explain why the gods would need to be quelled, and the ambiguity of whether the quest would quell all the gods, or only the evil ones.
Keeping all those plans in mind - or on 3x5 cards, as I do, and outlined at a high level in the drafts of each book, as well - I allow myself the freedom to create scenarios and bring new ideas to fruition as I'm writing. As long as those ideas don't change the overall continuity.
Too much.
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